The Headshot Mutation really makes the game feel like a zombie movie.  The zombies keep trying to eat you brains as you empty your clip into them.

The mutation is more challenging but not in a frustrating way that I thought it might be.  The worst is when you are getting swarmed and targeting the heads is that much harder.  Melee weapons also help but, as usual, I was too stubborn to pick on up and stuck with my duel pistols.  There was only one total party kill (TPK) during the Carnival finale and that was more a result of not having a plan then the Headshot Mutation.

For some reason I didn’t feel like shooting anything, at least not with bullets, so this week it was Portal 2. A new co-op adventure called Peer Review was released last month and my buddy and I dived right in. Turns out we were diving into pretty deep water as the new test champers are hard.  At least harder then the original levels.

I think it was a combination of not playing Portal 2 for a while and the face the new test chambers feature all the gizmos and gadgets at once.  For example, one chamber had Thermal Discouragement Beam, Excursion Funnel, and a Hard Light Bridges.  It took us while to figure out how to combine them all to pass the chamge.   It’s almost like the first multiplayer levels where the tutorial and now this is the real game.

Still, it was fun and GLaDOS is back to be the narrator and also taunt you when you die.  I just hope the levels don’t get so hard I get frustrated and quit.

In honor of Halloween we played L4D2 and played Death Toll.  That is my favorite campaign from the original L4D.  It’s nice a dark, has a crazy guy in a church and I like the finally in the small town park cabin thingy.

L4D2 is a team game but it can turn into a competitive game really quickly thanks to the stats at each level.  You know, the stats that say how many zombies you have killed, damage to tank, etc.  While L4D2 forces the group to stay relatively together players will often push and shove to be the first into a room to try and kill the most zombies.

This can be annoying as you try not to shoot your teammates as they run around like chickens with their heads cut off.  Instead of moving in a organized group it ended up being a couple guys running ahead while some waited for guys in front to either shoot all the zombies or get into trouble and in need of saving.  Not my ideal L4D2 experience, too relaxed and casual.

I guess I was looking for a more tense game and to savour the atmosphere with it being Halloween and all.  I think next time our team is bunch of cowboys I’ll try to up the difficulty or maybe play versus.  I still think the best games of L4D2 have hurt players limping towards the save room with zombies snapping at their heels.  Someone goes down and you have the debate if you should try a heroic rescue or leave them to their grim fate.

Back to TF2.  I haven’t played TF2 is long time but it’s still the same great game.  I was worried that some of the new weapons and items would unbalance the game but they didn’t.  Also each class still acted the same.  Valve didn’t create some goofy weapon or ability that fundamentally changed how a class works.  This makes it easy to pick up and play the game years after it has been released.  Playing TF2 is like riding a bike, you never forget how.

Although I really enjoy L4D2 I found the campaigns in the first L4D spookier.  First off the L4D levels are darker, with no daylight levels.  Then there is the banter between the characters.  In L4D the talk between the characters is darker.  Sure Francis makes some jokes but the overall tone is dark a gloomy.  Finally one of the characters in L4D actually dies in the below comic.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that neither L4D game is a scary game but they are both intense.  Both have their moments when one or two people go down and your fighting to bring them up or possibly leave them and make a mad dash for the safe room.  The first L4D just has that extra bit of doom and gloom that I think a gloom.  That sense of despair.  That even if you make it to the safe room things are not going to be OK.

Luckily the soundtrack is free and you can download it at here.  Enjoy.

Of all the Portal 2 tools I have the most trouble with the funnels.  It really hurts my head figuring out how to use them.  Thankfully the next levels are gels which I find easier to use.

While not as vocal in the single player GLaDOS is still there to “encourage” you.  Lately she has been saying things like “Yellow, did you hear what Blue said about you?”.  It’s a bit weird as you are doing tasks for GLaDOS that require you to work together but she is trying to prevent you from being “friends”.  I like to think that GLaDOS gets jealous of friendship because she dosen’t have any friends.  That makes me sad, but only a little bit.

In other news I passed Portal 2.  This is big news I rarely finish games.  I still feel the game dragged on a bit longer then needed but the ending was still satisfying.  It was nice how the final ending move was foreshadowed and well explained in the story, provided you listened to the automated recordings.  Can’t say much more without spoiling anything.

I’m glad I enjoyed the game so much since there is no re-playability in single player and multiplayer.  Now that I think of it the game reminds me of BioShock.  Both games lived and died by their single player game (I know Portal 2 has multiplayer but it’t not the same as Call of Duty multiplayer).  It’s nice to play a good single player game and not a crappy to average single player game that is tacked on to a multiplayer game.

The multiplayer is still fun.  We just finished the light bridge levels.  While we only got really stuck once on the previous levels we had a couple serious debates about what to do and had to experiment a couple times to figure out a level.

The only sad thing about multiplayer is there is slim to none replayability, and slim left town.  If I was to play with someone else I would either be telling them where to put the portals or just acting dumb and being bored while they figured it out.  It’s still worth it and I’m sure Valve will put out some new levels.

If you want robots then you need to play multiplayer, which I did last Monday.  Playing as the robots with another person is very fun.  I’ve done the first two sets of puzzles and so far they are balanced just right.  We only got really stuck on one puzzle and that can mostly be blamed on stupidity.

I do have a small confession to make.  I find it difficult not to kill my robotic partner.  Sounds weird because you don’t have a gun, at least not a gun with bullets, and the game really encourages cooperation.  But sometimes I just want to put a portal over the water and portal beneath my friends feet and watch him fall.  Just once I want to fry him with a laser or maybe crush him in some sort of crushing device.

I’m glad I got that off my chest.  Anyone want to play Portal 2 with me this Monday?